Westport Book Shop Welcomes Michael Brennecke For Art Exhibit

WESTPORT, CT — The Westport Book Shop will welcome artist Michael Brennecke as its guest art exhibitor for the month of March at the book shop's Drew Friedman Art Place.

According to a news release, Brennecke's focus is the creation of abstract paintings, in oils or watercolors.

He typically begins with a non-representational drawing, employing random, intuitive movement and accident to create a composition without any preconceived image. Then, in the tradition of Rorshact, through the addition of color and texture, he develops and emphasizes the evocative parts of the image that draw his attention.

While his compositions are conceived as abstractions, they may still evoke a sense of landscape or figure, or have the suggestion of natural geology, or appearance of rock formations, vegetation or water, according to the book shop.

Brennecke describes his process with each piece as a mental landscape, or overgrown archeology in which he has to tease out an underlying structure and sense of space. While some of his works, including those on exhibit at the book shop, are mostly in the landscape category, sometimes his compositions evolve to be more figurative, even portrait-like.

Brennecke names his works after completion, depending on visceral impressions, according to the book shop.

Brennecke is exhibiting four recent oil paintings at the Book Shop:

• "Night Lights," which turned out as an inadvertent homage to Van Gogh's "Starry Night Over the Rhone," of Arles lights reflected on the river
• "Paradise," which ironically refers to the California town destroyed by the Camp fire. This piece walks the line between the beauty and destructive power of fire.
• "Monteverde," evocative of the sunlit, vine-draped rainforest area of Costa Rica
• "Backside," which the artist says he has no clear idea about. "It is possibly somewhat figurative."

Brennecke attended The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and earned a BFA at Tufts University. He is a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists, the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, the Rowayton Arts Center and the The Artists Collective of Westport.

Brennecke is a lifelong resident of Westport. More of Brennecke's works can be found on his website at www.michaelbrennecke.com.

The art exhibit is open to the public during the book shop's business hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

Brennecke's artwork will be on exhibit through March 31. All artwork on exhibit is available for purchase.